THE AWKWARD YEARS
The Other Room at Porter’s, Cardiff
Mon 17-Sat 29 Sept
Following the critical acclaim of 2016’s Constellation Street, Welsh actor and playwright Matthew Bulgo returns to the intimate space of The Other Room with his latest creation, The Awkward Years. Bulgo has gone from strength to strength as a writer in recent years, after the success of his first full-length play, the heartwarming monologue Last Christmas, in 2014. Since then, he’s won two Wales Theatre Awards for Best Playwright and was commissioned to write for the National Theatre Connections series in 2017. The Awkward Years, however, sees a departure into something altogether more collaborative.
Lily isn’t where she expected to be at the age of 27. Trapped in a dead-end job and a cycle of one-night stands, she struggles through a private grief to find her place in the world. Directed by Dan Jones, with movement by Jess Williams, this intense one-woman drama experiments with sound, lighting and physicality to present a visceral and unflinching portrait of a life falling apart.
It’s also the first in a diverse and vibrant autumn/winter season at the Cardiff pub theatre, also featuring the anarchic anti-pantomime Cheer, Kevin Jones’s high-octane one-man play Cardiff Boy, and the award-winning, acid house-inspired fringe hit We Are Ian.
Tickets £12/£10. Info: www.otherroomtheatre.com Sam Pryce